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Our experiences from Microstrategy World 2018

To give you guys an idea of what MicroStrategy World actually is, let me briefly explain it first. Basically, it’s a conference organized on a yearly basis by MicroStrategy. Up and coming features of the tool are presented. There are sessions you can attend, ranging from technical sessions, to sessions about innovative solutions or even sessions about best practices.

Customers, partners and professionals from all over the world gather here. Which provides a great platform to share ideas, do some networking and –especially interesting for me- to inspire you.

Now that you know what World is, let me slice it up in a few topics.

Usher Networking app

As Agiliz, we built a networking application, with the integration of Usher. The idea behind it, is that in huge events like World for example, it is very hard to find the right people you want to meet, or to keep track of who you’ve already met.

The solution we came up with, was our own networking application.

How does it work?

I’m not planning to go into too much technical details, but as explained in the previous blog, Usher is a form of an identity. You could compare an Usher-badge to a digital passport, only with even more possibilities.

We can give every person, attending events like World or working at a certain company, an Usher-badge. They can then use this badge to login to our application. Once you are logged in, the real fun begins! What you get, is a visual overview of all the people for that particular event. You can sort based on location, function, company… And then connect with them! This makes it so much easier to find the right person you want to talk to. Plus, it keeps an overview of the all people you’ve already connected with.

Now imagine, it is not an event you are attending, but you are working in a company so big that you need a space shuttle to get from one side to the other. And you need to find one particular person. No problem! With our networking-app you can see who’s where on a map, click on them and directly send them a message or plan a meeting. The possibilities literally are endless.

So how does it look?
Well, a picture speaks more than a thousand words.

We presented our solution to Michael Saylor (CEO of MicroStrategy) and he was so impressed with it, he gave us the green light to build this as the official networking app for MicroStrategy World 2019!

The intelligent enterprise

Except for new and interesting features, the most emphasized concept was ‘the map of the intelligent enterprise’. I can already hear you thinking: ‘what in the World is that?!’

As the name suggests, it’s a map.

No really, it’s literally a map and if you follow it correctly, it will make your enterprise a lot more intelligent.

It would be impossible to completely explain every single step of the map in just one single blogpost. So I’ll summarize it for you.

The map is divided into multiple sections. Every section tackles specific topics or infrastructural setups, with predefined roles/solutions, to benefit the bigger picture of your enterprise and ultimately lead it towards actionable insights. Which, of course, makes your enterprise more intelligent, efficient and beneficial.

Now, imagine you invested in a super expensive infrastructure… And it just isn’t as performant as it could be or you expected it to be. Well, if you then take a look at the map, and notice that you don’t have a system administrator to optimize your environment… you might have already identified the problem.

Sessions

For me, as innovation manager, I tried to pick the most inspiring sessions I could find to attend. The most memorable ones, had everything to do with augmented reality, Amazon Echo/chatbots and MapBox!

Augmented reality in, at least in my opinion, is the future of business intelligence. Just by using the camera of your mobile device, you can instantaneously see the KPI’s concerning the thing you are filming. As Agiliz, we are going to invest more time into AR and come up with usable solutions.

With the rise of technologies such as Amazon Echo, it would be a shame not to do anything with it. You might think: ‘How can a thing like the Echo or a chatbot help me with my insights’.

Business Intelligence should be all about providing you with insights, quickly and on demand! Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you had a machine you could ask questions like: ‘How much profit did I make last year?’ and it would answer you immediately? Exactly. Since Agiliz is always looking for new ways to innovate, we are already building this as we speak.

That being said, how does MapBox (a map-plugin in MicroStrategy) fit in this picture? A map is not innovative at all, right?

Well, this one is.

The possibilities with MapBox are endless. For example, you can drill in your report/map just by zooming in or out. Not only does this change the level of your data being displayed, it changes the visualizations (which are stunning, by the way) as well!

I know, I promised not to go into too much technical details. So, I’ll try to explain it as simple as I possibly can.

MapBox is kind of comparable to Photoshop.

No indeed, not in its purpose, but in the way it works. Just like Photoshop, MapBox uses the principle of layers. On each layer you can define a type and level of visualization. The way you go through these layers as an end-user is, as I already mentioned, just by scrolling. This opens up a whole range of possibilities on how you not only show, but work with your data.

Conclusion

MicroStrategy World really is something else. Not only did we as a company, get the opportunity to network with our peers and customers. We managed to present our own solutions, all while becoming inspired by other solutions and stories.

Also, as a partner, it is of the utter most importance that you know your trade inside-out. Hence why being up to date with the latest hot topics and releases is a must. And what is a better opportunity than World to do this?

Jordy Vercammen

BI Consultant

Don't aspire to be the best on the team, aspire to be the best for the team

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